Anton Webern (Composer, Arranger) - Short Biography Anton Webern (Composer, Arranger) Born: December 3, 1883 - Vienna, Austria Died: September 15, 1945 - Mittersill, Austria (accidentally shot and killed by an American soldier) Life The remarkable Austrian composer, Anton (Friedrlch Willhelm) von Webern (he removed the nobiliary particle "von" in 1918 when such distinctions were outlawed in Austria), received his first instruction in music from his mother, an amateur pianist; then studied piano, cello, and theory with Edwin Komauer in Kiagenfurt. He also played cello in the orchestra there. In 1902 he entered the University of Vienna, where he studied harmony with Graedener and counterpoint with Navratil. He also attended classes in musicology with Adler; received his Ph.D. in 1906 with a dissertation on Heinricb Isaac's Cboralis Constantinus II. n 1904 he began private studies in composition with Arnold Schoenberg , whose ardent .disciple he became; Berg also studied with A. Schoenberg .

Together, A. Schoenberg , Alban Berg , and Webern laid the foundations of what became known as the 2nd Viennese School of composition. The unifying element was the adoption of A. Schoenberg 's method of composition with 12 tones related only to one another. Malevolent opponents referred to A. Schoenberg , A. Berg , and Webern as a Vienna Trinity, with A. Schoenberg as God the Father, A. Berg as the Son, and Webern as the Holy Ghost; the last appellation was supposed to describe the phantomlike substance of some of Webem's works. From 1908 to 1914 Webern was active as a conductor in Vienna and in Germany. In 1915-1016 he served in the army; in 1917-1918, was conductor at the Deutsches Theater in Prague. In 1918 he settled in Mödling, near Vienna, where he taught composition privately.

From 1918 to 1922 he supervised the programs of the Verein für Musikalische Privataufführungen (Society for Private Musical Performances), organized in Vienna by A. Schoenberg with the intention of promoting modern music without being exposed to reactionary opposition (music critics were not admitted to these performances). Webern was conductor of the Schubertbund (1921-1922) and the Mödling Male Chorus (1921-1926). He also led the Vienna Workers' Symphony concerts (1922-1934) and the Vienna Workers' Chorus (1923-1934), both sponsored by the Social Democratic Party. From 1927 to 1938 he was a conductor on the Austrian Radio; furthermore, he conducted guest engagements in Germany, Switzerland, and Spain. From 1929, he made several visits to England, where he was a guest conductor with the BBC Symphony Orchestra . For the most part, however, he devoted himself to composition, private teaching, and lecturing.

After Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, Webern's music was banned as a manifestation of "cultural Bolshevism" and "degenerate art." His position became more difficult after the Anschluss in 1938, for his works could no longer be published. He eked out an existence by teaching a few private pupils and making piano arrangements of musical scores by others for Universal Edition. After his son was killed in an air bombardment of a train in February 1945, he and his wife fled from Vienna to Mittersill, near Salzburg, to stay with his married daughters and grandchildren. His life ended tragically on the evening of Septtember 15, 1945, when he was shot and killed by an American soldier after stepping outside his son-in-law's residence (for a full account, see: H. Moldenhauer, The Death of Anton Webern: A Drama in Documents, New York, 1961). Music Webern left relatively few works, and most of them are of short duration (the 4th of his 5 Pieces for Orchestra, Op.

10, scored for clarinet, trumpet, trombone, mandolin, celesta, harp, drum, violin, and viola, takes only 19 seconds to play), but in his music he achieves the utmost subtilization of expressive means. He adopted the 12-tone method of composition almost irrimediately after its definitive formulation by A. Schoenberg (1924), and extended the principle of nonrepetition of notes to tone colors, so that in some of his works (e.g., Symphony, Op. 21) solo instruments are rarely allowed to play 2 successive thematic notes. Dynamic marks are similarly diversified. Typically, each 12-tone row is divided into symmetric sections of 2, 4, or 6 members, which enter mutually into intricate but invariably logical canonic imitations. Inversions and augmentations are inherent features; melodically and harmonically, the intervals of the major seventh and minor ninth are stressed; single motifs are brief, and stand out as individual particles or lyric ejaculations.

The impact of these works on the general public and on the critics was disconcerting, and upon occasion led to violent demonstrations; however, the extraordinary skill and novelty of technique made this music endure beyond the fashions of the times; performances of Webern's works multiplied after his death, and began to influence increasingly larger groups of modern musicians; Igor Stravinsky acknowledged the use of Webem's methods in his latest works; jazz composers have professed to follow Webern's ideas of tone color; analytical treatises have been published in several languages. The International Webern Festival celebrated the centennial of his birth in December 1983 in Vienna. Works Bibliography Igor Stravinsky: "[Foreword]". Die Reihe 2 (2nd revised English edition): vii.(1959) Anton Webern: The Path to the New Music. Edited by Willi Reich. (1963) [Translated by Leo Black.] Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania: Theodore Presser Co., in Association with Universal Edition. RepriLondon: Universal Edition, 1975. (Translation of Wege zur neuen Musik.

Vienna: Universal Edition, 1960) Hans Moldenhauer: The Death of Anton Webern: A Drama in Documents (New York: Philosophical Library, 1961) Hans Moldenhauer: Anton von Webern Perspectives. Edited by Demar Irvine, with an introductory interview with Igor Stravinsky (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1966) Friedrich Wildgans: Anton Webern. Translated by Edith Temple Roberts and Humphrey Searle. Introduction and notes by Humphrey Searle (New York: October House, 1966) David Ewen: "Anton Webern (1883-1945)," in Composers of Tomorrow's Music, 66-77 (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co, 1971) Hans Moldenhauer & Rosaleen Moldenhauer: Anton von Webern: A Chronicle of His Life and Work (New York: Alfred A.

Knopf, 1978) Joachim Noller: "Bedeutungsstrukturen: zu Anton Weberns 'alpinen' Programmen", in Neue Zeitschrift für Musik151, no. 9 (September): 12ן¿½18 (1990) Kathryn Bailey: The Twelve-Note Music of Anton Webern: Old Forms in a New Language. Music in the Twentieth Century 2 (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991) George Perle: Serial Composition and Atonality: an Introduction to the Music of Schoenberg, Berg and Webern. Sixth ed.

(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991) Andrew Mead: "Webern, Tradition, and 'Composing with Twelve Tones'", in Music Theory Spectrum 15:173-204 (1993) Malcolm Hayes: Anton von Webern (London: Phaidon Press, 1995) Kathryn Bailey (ed.): Webern Studies (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996) Kathryn Bailey: The Life of Webern (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998) Allen Forte: The Atonal Music of Anton Webern (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998) Anton Webern (1883 - 1945) - Find A Grave Memorial Death: Sep. 15, 1945 Composer. The most radical member of the Second Viennese School, he was a disciple of Arnold Schoenberg and adopted his methods of atonal and later 12-tone (or serial) composition. A supreme miniaturist, his style is aphoristic and intensely concentrated.

In a Webern score every note counts, as do the silences between them, and his innovative use of rhythm, pitch, dynamics, and instrumental color creates subtle yet dramatic sonic changes. Most of his compositions last less than 10 minutes, including his Symphony (1928). "Think of the concision which expression in such brief form demands", Schoenberg once said of his protege's technique. "Every glance is a poem, every sigh a novel". Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern (he dropped the "von" after World War I) was born in Vienna into an old Austrian aristocratic family. He had piano and cello lessons as a child and later studied music at Vienna University, earning a doctorate in musicology in 1906. More importantly he studied with Schoenberg from 1904 to 1908, and along with his friend and fellow pupil Alban Berg they would form the Second Viennese School.

His first published work, the "Passacaglia" (1908), was still fairly traditional, but the "Six Pieces for Large Orchestra" (1910) and "Five Pieces for Orchestra" (1913) saw him fully engaged in the atonal method. At the same time he was gradually stripping all elements of his music down to their barest essentials. The Vienna premiere of the "Five Pieces" was hissed by the audience and the evening ended in a riot. When he embraced Schoenberg's "method of composition in 12 tones" with "Three Traditional Rhymes" (1924), Webern had already been working along similar lines by applying Renaissance-era counterpoint to atonality, and the shift had no substantial affect on his style. An uncompromising idealist, Webern spent most of his career in obscurity. No conservatory or major university would hire him to teach and he supported himself through conducting and giving private lessons. From the early 1920s he lead the Vienna Workers Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, both sponsored by the Austrian government, and in 1927 he became a conductor and advisor on modern music for Austrian Radio.

The only success he enjoyed in his lifetime was the premiere of his choral work "Das Augenlicht" at the 1938 International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) Festival in London. By then the Nazis had branded Webern a "degenerate artist" and he had been removed from his conducting posts. What income he received came from doing hackwork for his publisher, Universal Edition. In the waning months of World War II Webern learned that his only son had died in action on the Eastern Front, and with the Allies advancing on Austria the composer sought safety with his remaining family in the resort town of Mittersill, near Salzburg. He would survive the war but not the Occupation. On the night of September 15, 1945, Webern was accidentally shot and killed by an American soldier who had come to arrest his son-in-law on black marketeering charges. He was buried at Mittersill. His death was doubly tragic because it came just as he was about to win long overdue recognition as an artist.

In fact it was Webern rather than Schoenberg who proved more influential in the two decades following WWII, not only on a new generation of postwar composers but on such established figures as Igor Stravinsky and Aaron Copland, both of whom turned to serialism in the 1950s. Composer-conductor Pierre Boulez hailed him as "The Last Threshold" in serious music. Like Schoenberg, however, Webern continues to defy mainstream acceptance. His 31 published opuses also include Six Bagatelles for String Quartet (1913), a String Trio (1927), Concerto for Nine Instruments (1934), Variations for Piano (1936), Variations for Orchestra (1940), two cantatas (1939, 1943) set to poems by his friend Hildegard Jone, and several song cycles. Webern's entire output can be listened to in about four hours. (bio by: Bobb Edwards) Anton Webern music | Composers Modernism Biography Anton Webern (3 December 1883 – 15 September 1945) was an Austrian composer and conductor.

He was a member of the Second Viennese School. As a student and significant follower of Arnold Schoenberg, he became one of the best-known exponents of the twelve-tone technique; in addition, his innovations regarding schematic organization of pitch, rhythm and dynamics were formative in the musical technique later known as total serialism. Webern was born in Vienna, Austria, as Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern. He was the only surviving son of Carl von Webern, a civil servant, and Amelie (née Geer) who was a competent pianist and accomplished singer — the only obvious source of the future composer's talent. He never used his middle names and dropped the von in 1918 as directed by the Austrian government's reforms after World War I. After spending much of his youth in Graz and Klagenfurt, Webern attended Vienna University from 1902. There he studied musicology with Guido Adler, writing his thesis on the Choralis Constantinus of Heinrich Isaac. This interest in early music would greatly influence his compositional technique in later years by employing palindromic form on both the micro- and macro-scale and the economical use of musical materials.

He studied composition under Arnold Schoenberg, writing his Passacaglia, Op. 1 as his graduation piece in 1908. He met Alban Berg, who was also a pupil of Schoenberg's, and these two relationships would be the most important in his life in shaping his own musical direction. After graduating, he took a series of conducting posts at theatres in Ischl, Teplitz, Danzig, Stettin, and Prague before moving back to Vienna. There he helped run Schoenberg's Society for Private Musical Performances from 1918 through 1922 and conducted the "Vienna Workers Symphony Orchestra" from 1922 to 1934. Webern's music was denounced as "cultural Bolshevism" and "degenerate art" by the Nazi Party in Germany, even before the Austrian Anschluss of 1938.

Although Webern had sharply attacked Nazi cultural policies in private lectures given in 1933, their intended publication did not take place at that time, which proved fortunate since this later "would have exposed Webern to serious consequences." As a result of official disapproval, he found it harder (though at no stage impossible) to earn a living, and had to take on work as an editor and proofreader for his publishers, Universal Edition. It was thanks to the Swiss philanthropist Werner Reinhart that Webern was able to attend the festive premiere of his Variations for Orchestra, Op. 30 in Winterthur, Switzerland in 1943. Reinhart invested all the financial and diplomatic means at his disposal to enable Webern to travel to Switzerland. In return for this support, Webern dedicated the work to him. He left Vienna near the end of the war, and moved to Mittersill in Salzburg, believing he would be safer there.

On 15 September 1945, during the Allied occupation of Austria, he was shot and killed by an American Army soldier following the arrest of his son-in-law for black market activities, when, despite the curfew in effect, he stepped outside the house to enjoy a cigar so as not to disturb his sleeping grandchildren. The soldier responsible, army cook Pfc. Raymond Norwood Bell, was overcome by remorse and died of alcoholism in 1955. Webern was survived by his wife, Wilhelmine Mörtl, and their three daughters. His only son, Peter, died on 14 February 1945 of wounds suffered in a strafing attack on a military train two days earlier. Webern was not a prolific composer; just thirty-one of his compositions were published in his lifetime, and when Pierre Boulez oversaw a project to record all of his compositions, including those without opus numbers, the results fit on just six CDs. However, his influence on later composers, and particularly on the post-war avant garde, was immense.

His mature works, using Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, have a textural clarity and emotional coolness which greatly influenced composers such as Pierre Boulez, Luigi Nono, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Like almost every composer who had a career of any length, Webern's music changed over time. However, it is typified by very spartan textures, in which every note can be clearly heard; carefully chosen timbres, often resulting in very detailed instructions to the performers and use of extended instrumental techniques (flutter tonguing, col legno, and so on); wide-ranging melodic lines, often with leaps greater than an octave; and brevity: the Six Bagatelles for string quartet (1913), for instance, last about three minutes in total. Webern's earliest works are in a late Romantic style. They were neither published nor performed in his lifetime, though they are sometimes performed today. They include the orchestral tone poem Im Sommerwind (1904) and the Langsamer Satz (1905) for string quartet. Webern's first piece after completing his studies with Schoenberg was the Passacaglia for orchestra (1908).

Harmonically, it is a step forward into a more advanced language, and the orchestration is somewhat more distinctive than his earlier orchestral work. However, it bears little relation to the fully mature works he is best known for today. One element that is typical is the form itself: the passacaglia is a form which dates back to the 17th century, and a distinguishing feature of Webern's later work was to be the use of traditional compositional techniques (especially canons) and forms (the Symphony, the Concerto, the String Trio and String Quartet, and the piano and orchestral Variations) in a modern harmonic and melodic language. For a number of years, Webern wrote pieces which were freely atonal, much in the style of Schoenberg's early atonal works. With the Drei Geistliche Volkslieder (1925) he used Schoenberg's twelve tone technique for the first time, and all his subsequent works used this technique. The String Trio (1927) was both the first purely instrumental work using the twelve tone technique (the other pieces were songs) and the first cast in a traditional musical form.

Webern's tone rows are often arranged to take advantage of internal symmetries; for example, a twelve-tone row may be divisible into four groups of three pitches which are variations, such as inversions and retrogrades, of each other, thus creating invariance. This gives Webern's work considerable motivic unity, although this is often obscured by the fragmentation of the melodic lines. This fragmentation occurs through octave displacement (using intervals greater than an octave) and by moving the line rapidly from instrument to instrument in a technique referred to as Klangfarbenmelodie. Webern's last pieces seem to indicate another development in style. The two late Cantatas, for example, use larger ensembles than earlier pieces, last longer (No. 1 around nine minutes; No. 2 around sixteen), and are texturally somewhat denser. Anton Webern Biography - Anton Webern Childhood, Life and Timeline Musicians Anton Webern Biography Anton Webern was an Austrian music composer and conductor who carved a niche for himself in music. Read the article to know more about Anton Webernâs childhood, life, and timeline.

Quick Facts University of Vienna (1906) Image Credit Though the entire collection of his works does not exceed more than three hours of performance time, Anton Webern stands tall among the 20th centuryâs most significant composers. Tragic would be too less a word while describing his accidental death just a few months after the war. He was accidently shot by an American army soldier. If he had been alive in the post war era, he would have been able to taste success in the music field, which dodged him during his lifetime. He was about to join a group of young composers. Webern lived in a turbulent era and plenty of obstacles stood in his path of growth and development, whose music was simply too austere and uncompromising. The oppression of the Nazi party and the stress of the war made his later works sound atonal. However, he was not a man who believed in quantity and there are only thirty-one compositions, which can be attributed to Anton Webern. He did not produce works quickly, instead produced works which are of the highest range, ones which had profound influence on the modern music world.

Anton Webern’s Childhood And Early Life Webern was born on 3December 1883, in Vienna, in Austria, as the only surviving son of a civil servant, Carl Von Webern and Amelie, who was a pianist and an established singer. Young Webern might have inherited the talent from his mother. Webern never used his middle names and dropped the Von in 1918 as directed by the reforms of the Austrian government after the World War II. Webern spent his youth in Graz and Klagenfurt and attended the Vienna University in 1902. There he studied musicology with Guido Adler and wrote his theses on Heinrich Isaac’s ‘Choralis Constantinus’. He received his doctoral thesis in 1906. This early interest in music greatly influenced his compositional techniques in later years. In 1904, he started private studies in composition with Arnold Schoenberg and became his keen supporter. His fellow student was Alban Berg, who would have a strong influence in his music. A. Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Webern together laid the foundation for what later became popular as the SecondViennese School of Composition.

The unifying element in this was the adoption of A. Schoenberg’s ‘twelve-tone technique’ in composition. Their rivals would refer them as—Arnold Schoenberg as God the Father, Berg as the Son and Webern as the Holy Ghost. Early Musical Career From the time span of 1908 to 1914, Webern was very active as a theatre conductor in Germany and Vienna. However, these positions were not apt for him as he was unhappy with the low standards of opera houses in provincial towns and he hated theatrical life. His marriage with his cousin Wilhelmine Mortl in 1911 brought about stability to his frustrating life. He served in the Austrian army from 1915 to 1916, but was discharged off his duties due to poor eye sight. From 1917 to 1918, he worked as a conductor at Deutsches Theater in Prague. In 1918, he settled in Modling near Vienna, where he taught composition on a private basis.

From 1918 to 1922, he supervised the programs of Society for Private Musical Performances, which was organized in Vienna to promote modern music without being exposed to reactionary opposition. Webern was the conductor of the Schubertbund (1921-1922) and Mödling Male Chorus (1921-1926). He led the Vienna Workers' Symphony concerts (1922-1934) and the Vienna Workers' Chorus (1923-1934), both sponsored by the Social Democratic Party. From 1927 to 1938 he worked as a conductor on the Austrian Radio and also conducted guest engagements in Switzerland, Spain and Germany. From 1929 onwards, he made frequent visits to England and worked there as a Guest conductor with BBC Symphony Orchestra. He devoted most of the time to private teaching, lecturing and composition. He also worked as an editor and proofreader for his publishers, Universal Edition. In 1926, he took up a teaching post at the Jewish Cultural Institute for the Blind.

Later Life And Compositions After Hitler took over the reign in 1933, Webern’s music was banned as a manifestation of cultural Bolshevism and degeneration of art. His position in Austria became all the more difficult as after Anschluss, the occupation and annexation of Austria, in 1938, his works could not be published. Though Webern has sharply criticized the Nazi cultural policies though private lectures given in 1933, their intended publication did not occur at that time which proved fortunate to some extent. If it had been published, there would have been even more serious consequences. Despite all this, Webern’s works with the Vienna Workers Chorus ended and four years later, his contract with Austrian Radio was also terminated. He tried to survive in the country by taking private tuitions to certain pupils and making piano arrangements of musical scores. He composed three important choral works during the period of 1938 to 1944. In 1940, he produced his orchestral composition called ‘Variations, Op 30’.

It was because of the Swiss philanthropist Werner Reinhart that Webern was able to attend the festive premiere of ‘Variations for Orchestra’, in Winterthur, in Switzerland, in 1943. Reinhart used all his monetary and diplomatic means to facilitate the travelling of Webern to Switzerland. In return for the support rendered, he dedicated the songs to Reinhart. Achievements Though not a prolific composer, the influence of his works on the later composers was immense. There were hardly thirty one of his compositions which were published during his lifetime. His works, which used Arnold Schoenberg’s twelve-tone technique, had a textual clarity associated with it and an emotional coolness, which greatly influenced composers. As in the case of any other composer, even Webern’s music transformed over time. Some of his works were in a late romantic style though they are neither published nor performed during his lifetime. The impact of these works on the common man was disconcerting. However, the amazing skill and novelty of the technique made the music reach beyond the boundaries of time. After his death, the performances of his works multiplied and began to influence larger range of musicians.

Nowadays, Jazz composers have started to follow the ideas of Webern’s tone colour and the analytical treatises have been published in various languages. The International Webern Festival celebrated the centennial of his birth on 1983. Personal life And Death Webern married Wilhelmine Mortl in 1911 and had three daughters and a son. However, in February 1945, he and his wife had to flee from Vienna to Mittersil near Salzberg, as their son was killed in an air bombardment of a troop train on the eastern front. They stayed with their daughter where they thought it would be safe. However, his life ended in a tragic note when on the evening of September 15, 1945, he was shot and killed by an American soldier by mistake, when he stepped out of his son-in-law’s house. Austria was under the occupation of Allies and his son-in-law was arrested for black-market activities. Despite the curfew that was imposed, he stepped out of his house to enjoy a cigar, when he was shot. The soldier who was responsible for the action, Raymond Norwood Bell was overcome by regret and died of alcoholism in 1955.

Legacy Anton Webern was one of the key figures who pioneered the so-called second Viennese school. He was also one of the best exponents of the “twelve-tone technique” and his innovations regarding pitch, rhythm and dynamics led to the formation of a music technique which was later known as total serialism. ANTON WEBERN TIMELINE 1883: Webern was born on 3December, in Vienna, in Austria, to Carl Von Webern and Amelie who was a pianist and an established singer. 1902: Webern attended the Vienna University. 1906: He completed his doctoral thesis by working on Heinrich Isaac’s ‘Choralis Constantinus’. 1904: He started private studies under Arnold Schoenberg and became his keen supporter. 1908-1914: Became actively engaged as a theatre conductor in Germany and Vienna. 1911: Webern married his cousin Wilhelmine Mortl. 1915-1916: He served in the Austrian army. 1917-1918: He worked as a conductor at Deutsches Theater in Prague.

1918-1922: He supervised the programs of the Society for Private Musical Performances, which was organized in Vienna to promote modern music without being exposed to reactionary opposition. 1921-1922: Webern worked as the conductor of the Schubertbund. 1921-1926: Webern worked as the conductor of the Mödling Male Chorus. 1921-1934: He became part of the Vienna Workers' Symphony concerts. 1923-1934: Webern became part of Vienna Workers' Chorus both sponsored by the Social Democratic Party. 1927-1938: He worked as a conductor on the Austrian Radio. 1940: Webern produced his orchestral composition namely ‘Variations, Op 30’. 1945: Webern’s son was killed when the train he was travelling was air bombarded. 1945: Webern and his wife fled from Vienna to Mittersil near Salzberg. 1945: Webern was shot dead by mistake by an American soldier while he was staying in his daughter’s house in Mittersil, Austria.

Famous Austrians - Anton von Webern Famous Austrians Order Webern, Anton von (1883 - 1945) Anton Webern was an Austrian composer and conductor. As a student and follower of Arnold Schönberg, he became one of the best-known exponents of the twelve-tone technique. In addition, his innovations regarding schematic organization of pitch, rhythm and dynamics were formative in the musical technique later known as total serialism. Although Anton von Webern was born in Vienna (3rd December 1883) he grew up in the country. He returned to the capital for his musical training, which included studies in music theory with Guido Adler. As his dissertation he published an edition of early sixteenth-century liturgical chants. Webern, who was a student of Arnold Schönberg , is considered the father of "serial", systematically deconstructed music. His reductionist but by no means unemotional compositions are miniature masterpieces. Webern composed cantatas, lieder, choral music, pieces for piano, as well as orchestral and chamber music, and also held a series of lectures entitled "The Path to New Music".

On 15th September 1945, Anton von Webern was shot and killed by mistake in Mittersill in SalzburgerLand by a soldier of the American occupation forces in a raid intended to capture his son-in-law who was involved in cigarette smuggling. Receive our updates English-Latin translation :: Webern :: Dictionary Wilhelm The definition of word "Webern": 1. Anton von Webern (1883-1945), Austrian composer and conductor, student of Schoenberg who adopted the 12-tone style in his compositions 2. born Dec. 3, 1883, Vienna; died September 15, 1945, Mittersill, near Salzburg, Austria; Austrian composer. He learned piano and cello as a child and earned a doctorate in musicology at the University of Vienna, specializing in the music of the 15th-century Flemish composer Heinrich Isaac. In 1904 he and his friend Alban Berg began composition lessons with Arnold Schoenberg and Webern was soon combining atonality with complex counterpoint in the manner of Isaac, producing works distinctive for their extreme brevity and delicacy.

While Schoenberg was developing the 12-tone method of composition into the 1920s, Webern was independently moving in a similar direction. After Schoenberg presented the system in 1924, Webern adopted it, composing relatively extended pieces such as the Symphony (1928), Concerto (1934) and Variations for Piano (1936). He earned a living most of his life as a conductor. During Austria's occupation at the end of World War II, he was accidentally shot and killed by an American soldier. Though he was little appreciated during his lifetime, his works became highly influential internationally in the postwar decades. 3. born Dec. 3, 1883, Vienna; died September 15, 1945, Mittersill, near Salzburg, Austria; Austrian composer. He learned piano and cello as a child and earned a doctorate in musicology at the University of Vienna, specializing in the music of the 15th-century Flemish composer Heinrich Isaac.

In 1904 he and his friend Alban Berg began composition lessons with Arnold Schoenberg and Webern was soon combining atonality with complex counterpoint in the manner of Isaac, producing works distinctive for their extreme brevity and delicacy. While Schoenberg was developing the 12-tone method of composition into the 1920s, Webern was independently moving in a similar direction. After Schoenberg presented the system in 1924, Webern adopted it, composing relatively extended pieces such as the Symphony (1928), Concerto (1934) and Variations for Piano (1936). He earned a living most of his life as a conductor. During Austria's occupation at the end of World War II, he was accidentally shot and killed by an American soldier. Though he was little appreciated during his lifetime, his works became highly influential internationally in the postwar decades. Please rate the definition of "Webern" which is the most useful for you. We have found the following latin words and translations for "Webern": Sorry, the translation of the word "Webern" was not found in the database.

Contribute to the dictionary: add a translation English: Please login to add your translation: Login using Facebook Tags: Webern, English - Latin Dictionary, English, Latin, translation, online dictionary English, English-Latin translation service Home | Contact Place the code below wherever you want the dictionary widget to appear on your website: <form method="get" action="" style="text-align:left;line-height:1.15;padding:10px;border:solid 1px #e2ded6;background:#fff;width:278px" target="_blank"><input type="text" style="width:100%" name="q" value="Translate from English to Latin here..." data-default="Translate from English to Latin here..." onfocus="if(this.value==this.getAttribute('data-default')){this.value=''}" onblur="if(this.value==''){this.value=this.getAttribute('data-default')}"><br><input type="submit" style="float:right" value="Translate"><span style="font-size:10px">Powered by <a href="" target="_blank">translate-latin.com</a></span><div style="clear:right"></div></form> The widget will appear like this: Anton Webern Anton Webern Biography

 Anton Webern was an Austrian composer, teacher and conductor.

He is known for extending the twelve-tone system made famous by Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg. Webern is best known for breaking with tonality and for creating serial composition. His innovations were formative in the musical technique which later became known as total serialism. He was born Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern in Vienna on December 3, 1883. He was born into an old Austrian aristocratic family. He received his first musical instruction from his mother Amalia who was a pianist and singer. He studied piano and theory with Edwin Komauer while at grade school in Klagenfurt. He attended the University of Vienna where he studied musicology under Guido Adler and earned a P.H.D. in musicology. In 1904 he started taking private music composition studies with Arnold Schoenberg. From 1908 he only wrote freely atonal music until 1925, after that period he only used Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique in every composition. In 1911, he married Wilhelmine Mortl, his first cousin despite the Roman Catholic prohibition against first cousins marrying, the marriage was not made official until 1915, after three of the couple's four children had already been born.

Often described as an uncompromising idealist he spent most of his career unrecognized as a musician. Unable to find employment at a conservatory or major university he taught and he supported himself through conducting and giving private lessons. Around the early 1920s he led the Vienna Workers Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, sponsored by the Austrian government. And finally in 1927 he became a conductor and advisor on modern music for Austrian Radio. These were the only successes he enjoyed during his lifetime. He was blacklisted and branded by the Nazis during the World War II as a degenerate artist and stripped of all his conducting posts. His only son died as a result of the war, so the composer and his remaining family fled seeking safety near Salzburg. On September 15, 1945, Anton Webern was accidentally shot and killed by an American soldier. His death was a tragedy because he was just about to become a recognized artist. He greatly influenced many postwar composers such as Igor Stravinsky and Aaron Copland both of them turned to serialism during the 1950s. His entire collection of compositions can be listened to in about four hours. He composed in almost all musical genres except ballet.

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Unformatted text preview: Dissonance/Consonance: combination of tones that sounds discordant and unstable, in need of resolution/ concordant or harmonious combination of tones that provides a sense of relaxation and stability in music Commission: a sum of money paid to an artist in advance to facilitate the creation of a new work for a specific ensemble, performance, and occasion Pizzicato: performance direction to pluck a string of a bowed instrument with the finger Extended Techniques: the use of a conventional instrument in an unconventional manner, in order to create new sounds Neo-Classicism: a twentieth-century style that combined elements of Classical and Baroque music with modernist trends Expressionism: a style of visual art and literature in Germany and Austria in the early twentieth century; the term is sometimes also applied to music, especially composers of the Second Viennese School; the music, art, and literature centered primarily in Northern Europe in the early twentieth century, and which often focused on extreme psychological states Second Viennese School Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951): most important composer of 20 th century; master for second Vienna composers; wrote Pierrot lunaire Anton Webern (1883-1945):

 active conductor; many of his works are miniatures; shot and killed by an American soldier just after the end of WWII Alban Berg (1885-1935): an Austrian composer; produced compositions that combined Mahlerian romanticism with a personal adaptation of twelve-tone technique Sprechstimme: a vocal style in which the melody is spoken at appropriate pitches rather than sung on exact pitches; developed by Arnold Shoenberg Atonal/Pantonal Music: moves from one level of dissonance to another, without areas of relaxation 12-Tone Music: compositional procedure of the twentieth century based on the use of all twelve chromatic tones without a central tone, or tonic, according to prescribed rules Serialism: method of composition in which various musical elements (pitch, rhythm, dynamics, and tone color) may be ordered in a fixed series 12-Tone Row: Prime Form: original form of the row Retrograde: backward statement of melody Inversion: mirror or upside-down image of a melody or pattern, found in fugues and twelve-tone compositions Retrograde Inversion: mirror image and backward statement of a melody Integral Serialism: a technique for composition that uses sets to describe musical elements , and allows the manipulation of those sets

 Bela Bartok (1881-1945): Hungarian composer, pianist, music professor and scholar; toured as concert pianist with his wife; did field work in remote peasant villages of Hungary, recording and studying folk music traditions Ethnomusicology: comparative study of music of the world, with a focus on the cultural context...

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Question: Which Austrian composer was shot and killed by an American soldier in 1945?
Answer: Anton Webern